


Guyliner

by McFif



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Aubrey and Keith learn new things about each other, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Pining, and they like what they find out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:14:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22291639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McFif/pseuds/McFif
Summary: Aubrey gives Keith a small makeover, and learns more about the Hornets' second in command.Keith pines, but wants to be a good friend.
Relationships: Keith/Aubrey Little
Kudos: 6





	Guyliner

**Author's Note:**

> I started this story way before the finale of Amnesty, so it doesn't necessarily fit with Aubrey staying in Sylvain. Technically, this could also happen after she returns (although it would be a waste of angst about their reunion). There are so many things we know about them seperately but don't necessarily have reason to assume they know about each other, so it's fun to imagine them growing closer and finding out all these things along the way. This is unbeta'd and I do not care.

Aubrey tucks her legs underneath herself, leaning up to bring her face on level with Keith's. He sits beside her on the bed, looking a little out of place in the small hostel-style room. He can't stop thinking about how the room is _Aubrey's_ , how the pictures on the walls, the comic books on the shelf, the card decks, cloths and wands stored on top of her closet and all of the clothes scattered across the room are _Aubrey's_. The bed he is sitting on is the bed she sleeps in every night and the smell of her shampoo clings to the pillow.

Aubrey seems entirely relaxed, like it's no big deal to have him in her personal space, which he supposes it isn't. They're friends as far as she is concerned, so there is nothing special about having him in her room.

“Come here”, Aubrey commands and takes a hold of his face. With her thumb, she pulls down the skin under his eye. His eye twitches almost involuntarily at the unusual feeling, and Aubrey loosens her grip a little. “You have to keep your eye open, try looking up, so I don't like... immediately blind you.”

“I'm not so sure this is a good idea anymore.”

“Don't be a baby, I do this pretty much every day.”

And indeed, her eyes are rimmed with delicate black lines which seem to make them glow even brighter. He's no fool, he knows women do not naturally look like this, but he had never considered the ordeal of putting it on.

“Don't you trust me?”, Aubrey asks with a smirk and wiggles the pen in front of his face in a manner that makes it look all flabby. She tried to teach him the trick with a wand before, but he hadn't managed to get the rhythm quite right.

“Well”, he says, “Your thumb is very close to my eye. It seems unwise to say no.”

Aubrey laughs softly, and it make the hairs on his arms rise. She's so beautiful. They're cool like this now, friends, although he has not dared to use this label out loud. When Keith tells the other Hornets he won't be at the Nest later, he says he's _hanging out_ with Aubrey. Sometimes one of his friends will give him a funny look, but honestly, that's to be expected with a girl. They think something has to happen between them just because she's a girl and he's a guy, which is, of course, dumb and sexist. Not every girl is into guys anyway.

The eyeliner pen approaches his eye and he follows her advice, looks up at the ceiling. The scratch of the pen on his lower eyelid is not exactly painful, but unpleasant. His instinct is to pull away, but the warmth of Aubrey's hand on his cheek is drawing him in.

“Now you can close your eye so I can do the top”, she directs. Her voice is softer now, and she isn't teasing anymore. “Keep it shut so I can smudge it a little. You're doing doing so well! Not let me see.”

Keith blinks a couple of time, but his eyes don't feel any different. Aubrey beams at him, clearly pleased with her work. Then her expression changes into one of curiosity. Slowly, she raises her hand to his face again and brushes her fingertips over his brow. He knows exactly what she has spotted; the fine, white scar that runs through and along his eyebrow.

“Is this from...”, she begins, and trails off.

He tries to smile, but it comes out weak and he fears not very convincing. “Yeah”, he admits. “Bled like hell, but I've seen worse.”

Aubrey nods. She had been there after all. Her fingers are still idly tracing his features, her eyes fixed on his face without any sign of reserve. “I don't think I apologized”, she says.

“For saving my life?”

“For threatening you. I never would have hurt you. That's not who I am.”

Of course he believes her. Even though they had their differences, he has never truly doubted that Aubrey is a kind person who always acts on best intentions.”Yeah I know”, he simply says. “It's funny because I don't know anything _about_ you, like your favourite colour and stuff, but this I know as well as anything.”

“It's red, you idiot”, Aubrey says, but her eyes say something else entirely. She looks at him with such unexpected and open affection that it is almost painful to return her gaze. It's a good thing Keith knows she has a girlfriend, because a look like might give a guy ideas. He allows himself to bask in her eyes for a few seconds, because he is only human, but then clears his throat a little awkwardly and turns his head away.

Aubrey exhales audibly, as though she had been holding her breath, and the tension between them fades.

“So... are you gonna do my second eye?”

*

  
  


“I really like this!” He is turning his head from side to side, admiring his face in the mirror. The darkness around his eyes does not make him look as feminine as he had feared. Even in the unflattering, yellow bathroom lights it looked dramatic, almost a little dangerous.

Aubrey is leaning against the door frame, looking smug.“Don't sound so surprised! I knew you'd look good!”

Keith doesn't reply, but the compliment makes his heart flutter and he can't suppress a wide smile. “Maybe it's not for me, but I think Hollis would actually really like this”, he shrugs, not really knowing how to accept her praise.

“On you? Or him?”

“Them”, Keith corrects automatically, and does not even think twice of it until he sees the surprise on Aubrey's face. Only then does he realize that during all the times the Hornets and the Amnesty crowd had clashed, Hollis' pronouns had never come up. Of course not, they had been something like enemies then! Not to mention the fact that Hollis does not open up to people easily.

“Huh... oh”, Aubrey says. “Gosh, I didn't know.”

“I should not have told you”, Keith quickly interrupts her, panicking. He feels his face grow hot with shame and fear. “I mean, you're cool right? I don't think you'd make fun of them or anything, or – but it wasn't my place to tell, I shouldn't have... Like, I'm not dumb, I know it can be dangerous for them if the wrong person finds out, and even though I believe you're cool to tell it's not at all my call to make.”

She listens to his rambling for a few seconds, before putting her hands on his arms. “Calm down, it's – I can't tell you it's fine but – I won't tell anyone else. I'm not – you know I'm bi right?”

“How the hell would I know that?”

“Oh, I guess you don't. But you know I'm with Dani.”

Keith nods as his mind desperately clings to the piece of information he has just been given. He feels bad for messing up now, so this is something he would have to contemplate at another point in time.

Aubrey's eyes are soft and her hands are warm. “You're a little protective of them, aren't you?” She has slipped into using the new pronouns so effortlessly, Keith notices, and it almost makes him want to cry because he cares for her so much. Hollis is his best friend, his oldest friend, they are his family. No matter how hard he may be crushing on a girl, if she couldn't accept Hollis –

Well, there was really nowhere things could go with Aubrey anyway, but where they are now is fine, it's good.

Aubrey is still looking at him with what he might have recognized as a reflection of his own feelings, had he dared to consider the possibility. Giving in to an impulse she dares not examine more closely, she moves her hands from Keith's arms to his back and pulls him closer. He lets it happen and his arms wind around her waist as his head sinks to her shoulder. She almost thinks she hears him snivel, but knows better than to comment on it. “You are a good friend”, she says instead, and hugs him as tightly as she can.

When they pull apart, Keith's checks are bright red, but he returns her smile. His eyeliner is a little smudged, but honestly, it looks more punk this way.

“Let's get some hot chocolate”, Aubrey suggests. “And maybe a second opinion on your new look if we run into Jake in the kitchen.”


End file.
